Stop by for snacks and tea with the SHASS community, students, and instructors!HumaniTea is a program partnering with other units in SHASS to gather, share some food and thought, and enrich our shared MIT experience in the process. Once a month, SHASS community members, instructors, and students from diverse fields of studies, backgrounds, and interests can stop in and enjoy a cup of tea or snack.Monday, February 24 Monday, March 17 Monday, April 7 Monday, May 5@ 4:15 – 5:45PM Building 14E-304**Directions: Third floor of Building 14 from the Lewis Music Library stairs, through the CMS/W doors. Alternatively, take the elevator to the 3rd floor and navigate to the opposite end of the hallway, through third floor and CMS/W doors!Sign up for HumaniTea info: bit.ly/mithumanitea

Speaker: Youngtak Sohn (Brown)Title: Stochastic Block Model with Many CommunitiesAbstract:The stochastic block model (SBM), a random graph generalizing the Erdős–Rényi model, has long served as a framework for community detection. For SBMs with $n$ vertices and a fixed number of communities $q$, Decelle et al. (2011) predicted that efficient recovery is possible above the Kesten–Stigum (KS) threshold and impossible below it. We review recent progress toward proving this conjecture. We then turn to the case where $q = q_n$ grows with $n$, a setting for which no prediction currently exists. We show that the KS threshold can be surpassed efficiently when $q_n \gg \sqrt{n}$, while low-degree algorithms fail to beat the KS threshold when $q_n \ll \sqrt{n}$. Based on joint work with Byron Chin, Elchanan Mossel, and Alex Wein.

Speaker: Rok Gregoric (Johns Hopkins University)

As we enter year three of civil war, experts discuss the global crisis that has been too often ignored. Among the topics to be explored will be US policy implications under the Trump administration.Please RSVP here.Moderator:Mai Hassan is an associate professor of political science at MIT and the faculty director of the MIT-Africa Program at the Center for International Studies. Her work examines topics that span across authoritarian regimes, bureaucracy and public administration, and contentious politics.Speakers:Cameron Hudson is a senior fellow in the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Prior to multiple other academic posts, Cameron served in the US government, including as an intelligence analyst in the Africa Directorate at the Central Intelligence Agency.Kholood Khair is the founder and director of Confluence Advisory, a 'think and do tank' formerly based in Khartoum that works on three priority policy areas: peace and security, economy, and governance. She is currently at Yale University as a visiting fellow.Ahmed Kodouda is a policy, advocacy, and communication specialist. He has an extensive background in conflict and post conflict settings and experience working with and consulting for governmental and NGOs around the world, including in Sudan, Afghanistan, and Kenya.Free & open to the public. A recording will be posted on YouTube following the event.MIT is committed to providing an environment that is accessible to individuals with disabilities. If you need a disability related accommodation to attend or have other questions, please contact us at starrforum@mit.edu.Sign up for Starr Forum emails to get notified about upcoming events.A full listing of Starr Forums is available here.

Daniel Xu (Duke)

Join us on Monday, April 7th, from 5:15-6:45 pm in E51-145 for a special talk by Ashley SmartThe Stories We Could Tell: Science Journalism in a Time of ChangeWhat role should science journalists play in restoring public trust in journalism and science? How should reporters approach complicated issues that pit science against personal values? How should we think about what is at stake — and for whom — in the stories we tell about science? In this talk, Ashley will discuss how his own experiences as a reporter, editor, and associate program director have shaped the way he thinks about these questions — and why science journalists must grapple with them if they are to navigate the precarious road ahead.About Ashley SmartAshley Smart is an award-winning journalist who serves as the associate director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT and as a senior editor at Undark magazine. He also teaches in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing and was co-editor of “A Tactical Guide to Science Journalism: Lessons From the Frontlines.” He previously worked as an editor and reporter at Physics Today magazine, and in 2015-16 he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. He serves on the boards of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and The Open Notebook.To Attend the LecturePlease fill out this RSVP form if you plan to attend in-person. The talk is free and open to all members of the MIT community. We hope to see you there!